A Suitable Parting Gift
by A Perfect Devil
Summary: It had been ten years since the contract had been signed, and Sebastian was not getting any more patient.


Ciel was sitting by the fire place in his sitting room, with Lizzie in his arms and a tiny baby girl in hers. He had finished his work for the day and so it was time for the daily late-afternoon time slot that he had promised to his wife in the wedding vows. Every day they would sit with each other, and more recently, their child and do a managerie of activities. Sometimes they played board games Ciel let others win for a change, or sometimes he sat patiently as Elizabeth talked his ear off. Other times, Lizzie would take off and leave Ciel alone with the baby who was proving to be a whiner quite like her father.

Due of to his butler's unsurpassable time-management skills this was nothing hard to do. In fact, he could easily spend even more time with his family than he already did. Yet he chose not to, for things had changed since his younger years and Ciel now boasted a rather interesting social life with a cast of invaluable business and smoking partners. He befriended doctors, lawyers, gang members, royalty and scientists alike. They proved to not only be interesting and kind people; but also to be helpful whenever the old queen would pass on her red-sealed letters. Old friends like Soma still remained, others like the old Undertaker had passed away and Lau had simply vanished in a puff of opium smoke one night never to be heard from again._ (Though there were rumors he was hiding in Singapore.) _Sebastian had always remained, a never-ending constant of the past ten years since Ciel had formed the contract.

That contract laid pretty much forgotten. Sebastian out politeness, never reminded Ciel of his untimely demise knowing that he only needed to show off a fang every once in awhile to remind his not-little-any-more master that he was starving like he had never been before. Sebastian's appearance had dramatically changed, his hair lacked shine and his limbs looked thin and brittle. As if the wind could carry a middle-aged man. A woman had not been brave enough to grope the inhuman butler in a very long time. Ciel had changed too, without a doubt. He remained short (his wife stood taller than he did if they were both in sock) but his hair had grown long and he looked quite like a dandy version of his father. The old style of long curled hair on men came in and died out, but his wife liked it so he hadn't bothered trimming his hair since he turned fifteen.

"Master." Sebastian stood at the door, the dim lighting did nothing to hide his sallow complexion and sunken features.

"Please come in, Sebastian." Ciel waved him in the room, and also held up his infant's hand to wave at him in addition.

"I have a matter in your office that needs attending to." he announced and Lizzie nodded. She would allow it but Ciel had better get his ass back on that couch with in the hour if he wanted relations that night.

"Understood. I will be back in fifteen minutes, darlings."

Sebastian sat on the desk, and Ciel stood in front of him with a scowl on his face. That demon looked at Ciel the same way Ciel looked at chocolate cake, or his daughter to Elizabeth's breasts. He was starving, and close to death in a way that made guests ask Ciel 'is there something wrong with him?' with hushed voices when the butler left the room. Ciel told him on countless times to correct his appearance, wear make up like a woman even if he must! Sebastian always reminded him that a butlers aesthetics don't require looking nice.

"I am nullifying the contract." Sebastian said. He did ask for permission.

"You will do no such thing." Ciel told him, he wasn't giving any.

A parchment scroll hung suspended in the air, unrolling itself so that the very last line of the document, which written in a language Ciel could not even read clearly showed his own signature written in blood. Blood that was still fresh even though it had been ten years since Sebastian stabbed him with a parchment quill and forced him to write it. A single paragraph half way up the document changed it's language for the master's convenience. It was not Sebastian's fault Ciel had never read through the document before.

"After ten years I have the very right to null a contract I do not believe you have the intent to finish within my own life time."

"That is not a legal notarized document, so I will not allow it."

"It is what you agreed to. No if you do not mind-" the scroll wound itself back up and spontaneously combusted, leaving not a single trace. Ciel felt his right eye go numb, and the room seemed less like his office and more like a trap. Sebastian tugged at the eye patch, Ciel wouldn't need it anymore now that the contract was removed and he could see again.

"I will be leaving." Sebastian was no longer wearing his age-old butler suit, but rather clothing he felt was more modern and far more suitable to his own tastes. Where he was hardly taller than his master before, he now towered over his master, he bent over just to meet face with Ciel's forehead. Ciel could not be conquered, he would not be intimidated to let his servant do whatever he so pleased!

"Sebastian Michaelis! You will return to your human form and then you are going to-" Ciel needn't say another word before his ability to speak had been removed from his body. One might have thought that being over fourteen thousand year olds that Sebastian might have learned to have some patience. Then again, anyone who would expect patience clearly had not met Sebastian.

"I will not. You have strung me along until the brink of death for a petty cause you never intended to keep interest in. I see no purpose in being the play toy of a spoilt child." Ciel felt an arm around his waist and a hand around his throat but everything looked black and shapeless before him with the exception of those once-amusing now-frightening glowing fuchsia eyes. He could eat any soul he pleased if there was no contract to stop him. _This is what staring in the face of death was like._

"Please…" Ciel begged, like it was actually going to achieve something. He felt it crawl past his lips, past his tonsils to retrieve that soul.

"Absolutely_ not._"

Ciel arrived back into the room, in exactly fifteen minutes. Lizzie was that close to stamping her foot on the ground and swearing off sex for the entire week. But she didn't, if only because Ciel had his hair down and they both new she couldn't ever get mad at him if he had his hair down. Call it the leftovers of being a teenage girl, but that trick never stopped working.

After Sebastian had quit his job to take care of his infirm mother, everyone had expected that Ciel wouldn't have taken it very well since Sebastian had become like a father to him. However, Ciel did jut fine after the fact. In fact, afterward everyone noticed a change in Ciel's behavior. He became less standoffish with relatives, even willingly inviting over his brother-in-law for dinner once every month. He hosted parties and galas, and he even built an orphanage in London. As the Lady Phantomhive could gossip on for days about, many of his 'other skills' had also increased since his personality changed. He was never distant with his (now three) children, all of whom grew up to be scholars. Ciel Phantomhive even wrote several autobiographies about his various adventure in life, which were naturally, best sellers and wonderfully entertaining.

Actually, Ciel Phantomhive led a life until his eighties where both he and his lady finally grew too old and tired to live on. One wouldn't expect a child who had sworn his own soul to the devil himself to live past thirteen yet Ciel led a fulfilling life that not only made him a warm person in the end, but also enriched the lives of everyone around him. Granted, it wasn't really Ciel Phantomhive, but at least it was an improvement.


End file.
